I’ve noticed there is a distinct lack of builds being posted on here anymore. Is it that everyone has moved over to FB or the like, or is it just that nobody is buying and building anymore?

I have bought, built/fettled and sold a few kits over the years and always said I’d not do another until I was in such a position to buy what I wanted - basically a decent spec Westfield or Caterham. After finally accepting I’ll never be in a position to throw £15k+ at a toy without compromising other areas of life, it was either back to sh*ting in the shallow end of the kit car market or doing nothing!

Browsing this forum I can across a part built GTS W7DE. From searching around I think the car has had at least a couple of owners over the years, but had never progressed that far in terms of being built (which if you have ever taken on a part built car can be a really good thing!)

Anyway, after a few email exchanges I found myself hiring a trailer and driving south to meet a lovely couple and collect the car. First impressions were good, all seemed as described so we loaded up. The plan is to strip the car back to the frame and build something quick, but with a budget of IVA’d and in the road for sub £5k.

I have already been down the crossflow, Pinto (loads) and Zetec route, but knew I wanted something with a bit more power....

I’ll post up some pictures when I’ve finally worked out how to use the uploaded on here again!

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Car as collected. Shouldn’t be too difficult to get it back to a bare chassis.

I looked at a few engine options and decided that a Saab b204 would give the best combination of power v price. The b204 has been fitted to a few kit cars, but is by no means common so conversion parts aren’t readily available.

The omega gearbox is the most common routeway to rwd as they bolt onto the engine and only need a spacer behind the slave cylinder to work. The original plan was to purchase a donor car and start from there. However, the day after buying and collecting a gearbox I saw an advert for a complete rwd setup, so I now have a spare gearbox!


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Although I’ve now got most of the main parts for the build, I’ve promised Mrs Shandylegs that I’ll not start the build until I’ve finished her MG.


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Still doesn’t stop me collecting the other smaller parts I know I’m going to need - how much have Sierra parts gone up

Sierra bits have gone nutz. Seen the price of an Lsd rear end or a T9 stuff I want is a fortune but bits I have tend to b3 worth bugger all

The photo uploader didn’t work for a long time which killed blogs and diaries.

If the site stays up I am going to so start a couple of project threads for prosperity. The end of the Indy and the beginning of the Viento.